Hate Me
by SoulKit
Summary: They hated me. They hated me for something I never had any choice in. What do you do when the ones who tormented you for so long are at your mercy? It's simple... / Oversized drabble really


They hated me.

They hated me since the day I was born. They called me 'demon' and 'monster', titles held for only the darkest of creatures in our world, yet even as a three year old, barely even able to walk or talk, I was somehow worthy of such a term. They ignored me when I needed help, threw me into the mud and darkness when all I wanted was food and clothing, and feared me when I walked down the street as if I would suddenly sprout fangs and claws and destroy everything in sight.

Not one person seemed to think otherwise. Not one person reached out to help. Not one person saw me as anything more than a demon.

_"Why?"_

A question so often on my lips I learned to stop asking it out loud. Never did I get an answer.

_"WHY?"_

It's unbearable being all alone. No family to look after you, no friends to play with, no adults to seek help from and nothing to call home but an old, run-down apartment where rats shared my food and depression seemed to ooze out the splintered walls. Even worse is to see those around you, the ones who have a home and a family and a life they can say is worth living. I saw them everywhere, down the street, going back to where I lived when the Academy day was over, in the play park and even in the windows of the houses I past and stared into, always wondering what it was like to have someone to respond with an 'Okaeri' to his 'Tadaima'. And sometimes, on bad days, I would see the way they looked at me with those hate-filled eyes before turning their backs to laugh at something I couldn't hear and every inch of me would want to rip their eyeballs out so they could never look at me like that again and scratch their lips off while I was at it because if they could smile and laugh and be happy then WHY COULDN'T I?

I scared myself when this happened. I turned and ran back to my apartment where I would curl up on the floor and tell myself they hated me, they hated me, and it hurt so much I was sure one day I would look back at hateful eyes and would simply drop dead because my body couldn't take the pain any more. But I had never done anything wrong. It was the one thing I clung to in all my years of loneliness. Their hate was unfounded, their fear had no grounds and one day I would prove them wrong. I would show them I was more than they believed. I would show them I was no demon. I would show them I could become Hokage and protect the village that really I did love so much. I would show them because then they would never be able to hate me again.

When I found out the reason these people hate me was because of something I had no choice in, had nothing to do with, could never have done anything about, I think something inside of me disappeared. Just for a moment. Just for a little while. Maybe I would have become the monster they always thought I was but...

**_"WHY?"_**

Then... a few people cam along who paid attention to me. It was as if I had been standing in the middle of a snow-storm for years, but every time they looked at me without hate or fear the snow disappeared to be replaced by the warmest sunshine. It gave the spark I held inside the chance to grow into a towering inferno that no one would be able to quench ever again.

Hokage-jiji, Iruka-sensei, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Bushy-Brow, Neji, Ten-Ten, Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, Ero-Sennin, Tsunade-baachan, Asuma-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, Gai-sensei and so many more I can scarcely count them all.

And of course the reason for my years of being hated, the one who had as little choice in the situation as I did, the real demon in the equation, Kurama, the Kyuubi no Kitsune and, for several years now, my closest friend. He really is quite the fuzz ball when you get to know him.

So as I stand here now, on top of the Hokage tower and stare down at the people who hated me as they stare back at their Rokudaime Hokage and cheer, I wonder what to say to them. What do you say to the ones that taught you hate beyond comprehension, loneliness with no end, and pain without understanding? What do you say to those who shunned you for something they never even tried to understand? When you finally have the ability to make them pay with nobody to stop you, what do you do?

In a flash the answer comes I say what I had been wanting to say to these people for longer than I can remember.

"Thank you."

And I mean it.

These people taught me what it felt like to be hated. They made be who I am today. I was moulded by pain and loneliness. I became who I am because of them.

My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I am unable to hate you.

_Thank you._

* * *

**I do not own Naruto, it belongs Masashi Kishimoto.  
Cover art courtesy of Uzushiyo78 on Deviantart. I do not own it either.**

**Hate is such an overused word. True hate is something you can't fight against. It's always there no matter what you do.**

**Naruto is beautiful because it teaches us that hate is not something we should give in to. It's something we should use to better ourselves so that we might one day rise above it.  
**

**That, in my opinion, is what peace is.**


End file.
